LIVE REVIEW: Cabbage - The Magnet, Liverpool

Just weeks away from the release of their eagerly anticipated debut album, Nihilistic Glamour Shots,
Mossley 5 piece Cabbage gave Liverpool’s The Magnet a defiant, blistering send off this past week.

A feverish crowd sizzle as the band stride onto the cramped stage and instantly launch into new
single ‘Arms of Pleonexia’. The chorus is belted back at lead singers Lee Broadbent & Joe Martin, and
it’s both strange and encouraging to witness a crowd of youngsters screaming criticisms of the
international arms trade on a Friday night in Liverpool.

The band roll out old hits ‘Necroflat’, ‘Fickle’ and ‘Indispensable Pencil’, and it’s quite obvious early on
that the scouse crowd is feeling particularly rowdy. The lack of barrier between the Mossley boys
and punters means The Magnet’s security staff have a particularly busy night, and Broadbent tries
several times to save stranded fans who end up prostrate on the stage.

The newly remixed and polished Kevin sounds fantastic, while the band also preview new album
songs ‘Preach to the Converted’ and ‘Molotov Alcopop’ at this point, the crowd lapping both up and
bouncing along to these previously unheard tracks. ‘Tell Me Lies About Manchester’ has also evolved
as Cabbage have grown, and a heavily distorted version is played here, one of several songs that is
complimented by Broadbent’s synth machine.

Corbyn chants are interrupted by the opening chords of fan favourite ‘Uber Capitalist’, and the crowd
truly goes wild now. The finale is a hectic, unruly performance that shows Cabbage at their best, as
fans invade the stage seeking safety from the pit, and Broadbent is forced to flee as the song ends –
what a sweaty, angry and exhilarating way for The Magnet to bid goodbye.